The best choise in your case is Interbase. It able to work on your standalone computer, thus you can develope DB application at home. It very reliable end easy to install and use. Delphi5 has components to work with Interbase without BDE. And it seems like developed for Delphi product especially (joke;). Interbase SQL language is look like ANSI SQL, and in most cases you do not need to change your code to work with another SQL servers (Oracle for ex.).
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Igor.

Try MSDE (Microsoft Data Engine), it is FREE! It is almost the same as MSSQL. It can be used as a developing DBMS for furture upgrade to MS SQL. Go to www.microsoft.com and search for MSDE. You'll have 40 MB or so to download.

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